Google axes 10 products

The Inq notes Google is cleaning up by pulling 10 products from its business. About to be shelved are Google Desktop, Aardvark, Fast Flip, Notebook, Image Labeler, Web Security, Sidewiki, Subscribed Links, Google Pack and the Maps API for Flash.

The cleanup is being orchestrated by Google's CEO Larry Page, who promised to chop inefficiencies as soon as he took over the top job in April.

"Technology improves, people's needs change, some bets pay off and others don't. So, as Larry previewed on our last earnings call, today we're having a fall spring clean at Google," said Alan Eustace, SVP at Google in a blog posting. "Over the next few months we'll be shutting down a number of products and merging others into existing products as features."

Some of these products were recent purchases, such as search company Aardvark that Google bought last year for $50m, while others have been with the company longer, like Google Web Security, which Google acquired when it bought Postini in 2007.